Modern inventory systems are deployed in workspaces, such as in mail order warehouses, supply chain distribution centers, airport luggage systems, and custom-order manufacturing facilities, and face significant challenges in responding to requests for inventory items. As inventory systems grow, the challenges of simultaneously completing a large number of packing, storing, and other inventory-related tasks become non-trivial. In inventory systems tasked with responding to large numbers of diverse inventory requests, inefficient utilization of system resources, including space, equipment, and manpower, can result in lower throughput, unacceptably long response times, an ever-increasing backlog of unfinished tasks, and, in general, poor system performance.
To answer such challenges, many inventory systems rely on robots. For example, fully controlled, semi-controlled, or fully autonomous vehicles equipped with robotic manipulators are deployed within a workspace and are responsible to travel around the workspace and perform inventory-related tasks.
To ensure the proper operations of such inventory systems, various requirements may be imposed. For example, fire requirements can help improve the resilience of an inventory system to fire accidents. However, as the workspaces become more complex and the number of robots increases, meeting such requirements become more challenging. Absent compliance with the requirements, proper operations of the inventory systems may be at risk. In turn, efficient utilization of resources and optimized throughput may be at risk too.